Journey Through Time

 

I don’t know who am I, or what am I? Am I a ghost, a memory, or a dream of someone? But what I know for sure is that I’m out of this time. I may be a few thousand years old but I’m free now. Free from all the sorrows and all the sufferings of the world. I have lived more than 100 lives in different forms and across different places in the world. They say when a person dies he/she either goes to heaven or to hell, depending on their sins or their goodwill. I got to tell you it’s not that simple. One more thing you need to know about what happens after you die is that you can go through and revisit all your lives. You can go through your life within seconds, all your memories and experiences. I remember the first time I encountered a near-death experience. I was born in a small village in ancient Egypt, my family was very poor and we belonged to the lower caste or the slaves. Let me just scroll through time once again. Just a minute, found it! My name is Muhammad.  I am a small skinny boy, tall and dark. I have curly hair, longer than usual, tanned skin and I resemble more to my father than my mother. Both my parents work hard each day and they are out almost the entire day.

The time is somewhere around 2550 BC, Pharaoh Khufu the ruler at the time has just started building the great pyramids of Giza. My parents work for the emperor, I on the other hand play all day with my friends from the village. Hunger and poverty are pretty common here, I rarely go to sleep with a full belly. Apart from that our community is highly exploited and tortured when the rulers don’t get what they want. I remember once my father was beaten up so bad, he couldn’t go to work for more than two weeks. At the time I remember taking care of him and looking after him. Life is very hard out here, there is suffering all over this place. I can see people getting tortured in front of my eyes. There is no nourishment and health care whatsoever, just last week a small child died due to malnutrition, his family is our neighbor. They have still not recovered from the tragedy, the mother usually cries every night. That’s basically the life around here.

I look around and see people gossiping about something, the whole town actually is discussing some major issue.  There are rumors that a deadly plague has invaded Egypt, people have been dying due to it and finally, it is on the verge of reaching our village. The people on the outskirts of the village are already infected and many have died. The symptoms and repercussions are deadly, first the victim shall experience high fever, followed by skin irritation and rashes. This would continue for a few days and eventually, the person would die a horrible death. There is terror now all over the place. My mother has asked me not to leave the house until she says so. I may be a young kid, but I’m old enough to understand that something terrifying is on its way. Days have passed by, I’ve not left my house for many days. More and more people are falling sick each day. My father has to go out of the house on the King’s orders, I’m worried for him as well as my family.

It’s been a week now that I have not left my house, I see my dad in front of me. There’s something wrong with him, he’s looking weaker than usual, and also he has scratching marks all over his body. He has been tired and seemed different these few days, but today something major is going on. Well, this is not usual, normally he bees tired and faces body pain but today something is different. My mother has asked me to stay at a distance from my father. I’m afraid, this is terrifying. I can see the look on my mother’s face, she has realized that my father has been infected. I don’t know what to do, I’m just watching everything from a distance. My mother is crying, but I cannot help it, what can I do I’m thinking? I realize now that my father has got only a few days left now. I’m devastated, but there’s nothing I can do. I want to hug him and take care of him but I cannot. My mother has decided to take care of my father, despite her own life being in danger. Today nobody will sleep or have food.

Another couple of days have passed by, both my parents are dying in front of me and there’s nothing I can do about it. And it was inevitable that no matter how many precautions I take, staying in the same house of the devil himself, there’s nothing that can save me from him. Slowly and gradually I also have started to show the symptoms, my whole body is itching and getting pale red. I can see the look on parents face, they are going through a lot of pain right now, on top of that now even I have started showing the symptoms. Apart from that something strange happened last night. Last night there was a slow whisper on our door, it turned out to be our neighbor. He said and I quote “Pssst! Can you hear me? I don’t have time and I shall get going before anyone sees me, if I get caught they’ll torture me. Listen the king has given some orders about how to handle this plague and control its spread. These orders shall be followed from the dawn itself, I don’t actually know what the orders are, but it’s not good for sure. Hey! There’s someone coming I got to go, see you on the other side.” Since he left, nobody has even blinked an eye or slept for that matter.

 It's early morning now, I hear people screaming and loud terrifying noises of whip getting hit hard on people’s bodies. There is an announcement, the messengers of the King are shouting it out loud riding on their horses.  The king has declared that all the people who have been infected and suffering will be locked up together in a cave. As soon as I hear this, there’s a small cold breeze running through my body. My blood has turned cold, I’m not sad, I don’t feel like crying. I’m just not feeling anything right now, I’m numb. I look at my parents, that vulnerable look on their faces finally brings me back to my senses. I have started crying out loud, followed by my mother. The screaming continues and gets intense. First, the screams were coming from a distance, now the screams and moans are getting closer. Oh no! they’ve already started pulling people out of their houses and dragging them towards the cave. I’m just a 12-year-old kid, how am I supposed to handle all this trauma? We are helplessly waiting for our turn now, there are thousands of thoughts going through my mind. The long and tough wait starts now, the intensity of the noises is getting louder and feels like getting closer. Suddenly there’s a knock on our door, and it has broken the long and deadly silence. We did not respond to the initial knocks, now the small knocks have turned into loud thumps. I’m scared, I don’t know what to do. I look back at my dad, he’s already in tears. Suddenly there’s a thunderous loud noise, Bang!  They’ve knocked down our door.

They have started dragging all three of us from our own houses. My father has already passed out, he’s unconscious. I’m bleeding, because of all the sharp objects on the land. We are not alone, hundreds of other villagers are also been dragged out and taken towards the caves. I look at my mother and there’s a weird smile on her face. She’s not afraid now as she has realized that it's her time now to get free from all the sorrows of the world. I give her a smile back and we share an amazing moment covered in blood and dust. Finally! We have reached the caves, there are already people locked up there. As soon as the doors of the caves were opened, the look on their faces to witness light was very scary. All three of us are pushed inside the cave and the cave doors are closed shut. “Damn! I cannot see anything, I’m scared mother save me” I scream. My mother said “I’m here only love, just try to keep it together. Our savior, the almighty is coming soon to release us.” Those words gave me a little comfort and I tried to keep it together. It was total darkness out there, one cannot even see their own fingers. Slowly and gradually we got acquainted with the darkness. They did not feed us anything, not even water to drink. We were just left there to die.

Days have passed by all in darkness, now we have lost track of time. We don’t know whether it is day or night, we just keep praying. Every night I hear people moaning because one of their closed ones has suddenly stopped responding and breathing. Now even I have stopped feeling anything, there’s no pain, no suffering just total darkness. I remember my lights going out on the fifth day, suddenly I couldn’t feel any pain or my body weight. My body was lying down on the cave’s floor and I was floating on the ceiling of the cave. There is this bright white light that is blinding me. I cannot see the source of it, but it is magical. I see some unusual beings wearing bright white clothes around me, some of them have wings. I say to myself, my mom was right there are angels. I look at myself I’m wearing some light blue colored cloth which is very comfortable. Suddenly there is so much happiness around me, everything around me is so bright and joyful. I look down and I can see my whole life in front of me, I can scroll through time and memories instantly. I was enjoying every bit of it, all the sufferings and hardships were finally over. I’m free now.

Apart from that life, my soul has witnessed many lives through thousands of years. Now I’ve even lost count, but there’s one thing I have learned through all these years. I don’t know if there is a heaven or hell, but only RELIEF. Relief from all the sufferings of the world. So my advice for you shall be that be humble, don’t let your ego take control of your life. Help others and be kind to everyone, nobody knows if the other person has a tomorrow or not. And that thing what you call 'Social Media'? It's such a huge illusion, don't believe in all the lies people post there. Nobody has a perfect life as they pretend to have out there. Monetary happiness is just temporary as well, it is all a lie. Don’t let money and greed kill your soul. You are going to leave the earth in the similar way you entered it, that is ‘Empty Handed’. If you ever feel your life is tough and full of suffering, just remember you’re not alone. Speak to someone, go out there and do what you love. There might be no tomorrow.

When your lights go out eventually, don’t forget to give me a visit. I shall be waiting for you. “SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE.”